Carpe-ntry-diem - Part 1
Part 1 - SPRING
On April 15, 2021, after 3 months of quarantine lifestyle in Ottawa, we returned back to our land in Bancroft, just in-time for the celebration of my birthday with a litter of kittens and a new 2010 Tacoma 4x4 truck. I still remember my wishes on that birthday very clearly: to find good homes for the kittens, to complete the carpentry of the our home enough to move in before the winter and to still love each other by the end of it all.
Last December we left after completing the foundation and the first floor joists. We moved and stored all the lumber on top of the first floor and covered it with tarps.
It was the first week of May when we opened the tarps again and started moving the lumber down, beside the house. We made comments on how unexpected it was to re-locate these loads of lumber and plywoods around the property over and over again - by the house, near the house, up the house, down the house, up to the house again—by Hand!.
Anyways, we were feeling different this time around! We had more confidence in ourselves with the tasks ahead of us. We knew what to expect of carpentry. It’s something all of us, handy people, love and enjoy. We were going to move through the tasks in a breeze.
Unfortunately it didn’t take too long - precisely one day - until we got hit by our very first problem. We realized while installing the plywoods on top of the floor-joists, that our foundation was not exactly square!!! The walls were right distance apart and parallel, but they were skewed (see floor plan).
I admit it. I panicked a little bit.
We called our architect friends and the structural engineer to ask for a solutions with shame and worry. But they re-assured us that, this wasn’t such a big of a screw-up as we thought it was. And it was fixable.
Thank you Universe!
So in the end, we added two extra posts and an extra joist on the most east piers. We remembered how much we b*ched about how big our piers were last year and felt a deep appreciation for them. We could’ve put tree posts in a row if we needed to. Then we placed the walls on top of the platform as they were intended - Square. With that, we learned it’s not enough to check the distance of piers in a row but also check corner to corner. This would’ve been easily avoidable if we had placed the sonar tubes all at once and poured the concrete in one day. (If you haven’t already, make sure to read our previous blog-posts about how we did our pier-foundation).
In the mean time, while this was all being sorted out, we though we could quickly do the last few north patio piers that needed to be done.
The good thing about building your own house is that you can jump between tasks anytime while waiting on something else - In our case it was to hear back from the structural engineer.
It felt good to do some pier work again. It was familiar and we knew exactly what to do for a change. We quickly drilled, placed the sonar tubes and rebar in one day; and second day we were set to mix and pour the concrete. We managed to move the mixer using the old push and pull technique, and some help of our beloved backhoe.
It was May 19th, the day started relaxed and joyful. But around 11am, as if it was divinely scheduled and we somehow missed the memo, all mechanical items started to brake down—first the back-hoe, then the generator, the concrete mixer and even the magic-bullet.
It was the day I saw Ivan gently weep.
Then we laughed of course of the hilariosity of the situation. What were the odds of:
Backhoe to break the drive shaft, which left it in the most awkward, extended position for the next few weeks.
Magic Bullet to burn while we were taking a break mixing some refreshing smoothie.
Gas getting into the engine oil of the Concrete Mixer and stop working. Luckily, changing oil was a quick fix.
But as soon as that was done, the pivoting break got clogged and had to be disassembled and cleaned.
And finally, just when we were about to wash our tools and call it a day, the Generator’s pull-line to snap.
All this happened in few hours but we are proud to say that it did NOT stop us. We continued on fixing and working manually against all the odds and finished the pier work as planned. It was late and we were exhausted. In the end we had a very intense day to remember and an excuse to buy ourselves a Vitamix, which we always wanted.
That one day symbolized our return to the project, over the next month:
We get back and got the trailer running - fixed the generator, fan heater, water pump and the water heater.
Cleaned up the junk at the entrance.
Set up two campsites and posted them on AirBnB.
Welcomed our first campers on the property.
Our kittens started walking and being all so cute and adorable.
We got gifted boxes of little plants and planted a garden with the help of our friends.
Baked our first sour-dough bread and entered the world of fermentation and baking.
All of it set up the 2021 season of building our dream space.
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